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Introducing Virgin Hyperloop One – the world’s most revolutionary train service

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Delighted to announce Virgin Group’s investment in Hyperloop One – the world’s most revolutionary train service. This is an incredibly innovative and exciting new way to move people and things at airline speeds on the ground. At the same time we have also agreed to rebrand the company as Virgin Hyperloop One.

Image by Greg Rose

With Virgin Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo will be loaded into a pod, and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag. We’re incredibly excited about the technology behind Virgin Hyperloop One and the way it could transform passengers’ lives.

Ever since our creation, Virgin has been known for disruption and investing in innovative companies. From our airlines to our trains to our spaceline, we have long been passionate about innovation in transport too, especially the development of technology that could transform people’s lives. This is just the latest example. Importantly, Virgin Hyperloop One will be all-electric and the team is working on ensuring it is a responsible and sustainable form of transport too.

Image from Virgin Hyperloop One

As ever, the team behind the business is just as important as the product. I love to invest in people, not just technology. We’re pleased to be working with President of Engineering Josh Giegel, who previously worked at Virgin Galactic, and their experienced executive team.

You may first have heard of the original hyperloop name through Elon Musk and SpaceX’s white paper back in August 2013. Hyperloop technology has been explicitly open-sourced and others have been encouraged to take the ideas and further develop them. Virgin Hyperloop One are leading the way in these efforts and are working on exciting projects in the Middle East, Europe, India, Canada, and the US.

Image from Virgin Hyperloop One

The technology for Hyperloop One is currently in the early stages of the commercialisation phase after the successful completion of the world's first full scale hyperloop systems test at their DevLoop site outside Las Vegas.

Earlier this summer I was fortunate to visit the site and see first-hand the exciting technology being tested. I was very impressed and now look forward to helping turn this cutting edge engineering into a global passenger service.

Image from Virgin Hyperloop One

During phase two of testing, the duration of the longest test has been 10.6 seconds, with the top speed of 192mph (310kmh) – or 86 metres per second. The maximum distance travelled is 436 metres, with a peak acceleration of 1.48 Gs – equal to 0 to 60mph in 1.85 seconds.

The total ‘DevLoop’ tube length is 500 metres and the tube’s diameter is 3.3 metres. The maximum length of propulsion segment used is 300 metres, with an advanced proprietary levitation system throughout the DevLoop Tube. Projected journey times in the UK include Edinburgh to London in 50 minutes.

Image from Virgin Hyperloop One

Finding My Virginity, my new autobiography, is all about trying new things for the first time and embarking upon new challenges. Nothing could embody those ideas more than Virgin Hyperloop One.